Vashon HouseHold, the island’s affordable housing developer, will begin preliminary work at a site on Bank Road this week, where it will build 14 small homes for low-income residents.

Last week Vashon HouseHold’s Executive Director Chris Szala said the $6 million Sunflower project is still $350,000 short of what’s needed for construction, which will begin later this spring, and he noted that the agency will seek grants and turn to the community to support the project.

“Anybody who donates to this cause … helps guarantee an affordable home on Vashon for 100 years,” he said. “It is a long-term investment for the island and the people who work here.”

The project, more than a decade in the making, moved forward in January with a plan to build small homes, at just 700 square feet each, for $170,000 to $175,000.

Because the homes are smaller than typical, housing officials from the state and county, which helped fund the project, wanted to see a full slate of home buyers, plus alternatives, before allowing it to move ahead.

Szala said that process happened quickly, as all the homes were spoken for within 10 days.

“We have always known the market is out there,” he said.

To qualify for a home in the development, buyers must make no more than 80 percent of the area’s median income, but he noted they cannot make substantially less than that, or they could not afford the mortgage. For a single person, the income range is between $36,000 to $46,000, and for a couple it is $38,000 to $52,000.

“Those are the only people who qualify, a very thin nitch,” he said.

The buyers are from a cross section of island life, he added, and include a Metro bus driver, a Thriftway employee and a social worker.

For more information or to donate, email Szala at chris@vashonhousehold.org or see the agency’s website.